I feel like I have really begun my trip now that I am here in Ushuaia, surrounded by mountains and soon on my way to even bigger mountains! It is much much cooler here than in Buenos Aires (it is about 55 degrees for a high). Ushuaia is the most southern city in the world and the place where people come to catch boats to Antarctica. I am so happy to be here! But back to BA briefly, I did a few interested things my last 2 days in Buenos Aires...
On 1/30 I returned on the ferry to BA from Colonia, Uruguay about mid-morning. On the way to the hostel I had a pretty good conversation with the taxi driver (in Spanish of course) that I was really excited about. My spanish just keeps getting better! After settling in my room, I headed out to the neighborhood of San Telmo. Every Sunday there is a large antiques and artisan fair in the Plaza Dorrego, but it seemed also to have spread to many other streets this Sunday as well. The plaza was packed with people and vendors selling everything from beautiful photos and paintings of BA to jewelry to a Nazi war medal (not kidding, it was for sale). I wandered through the stalls for quite a while and ended up with some really nice, cheap souvenirs. After a bit, I had a nice lunch in a tango hall, although I refused to pay for the tango show (it was stupid and expensive) so they made me sit with my back to the show and told me not to look at it. I had a really yummy and cheap salad there though. After lunch, I walked up to Plaza de Mayo to tour the Casa Rosada, what I believe is the presidential palace and also the place where Evita Perón gave her famous addresses. It was a free tour through the guilded conference halls, pillared courtyards with palm trees and beautiful fountains and of course the balcony from which Evita addressed her Argentina. There were several comically dressed guards that herded us throughout the house, posing unenthusiastically for pictures with tourists. The exterior of the buidling was pretty as well, being painted a salmon pink color with a mass of arches, columns, balconies and windows. In the evening I stayed in the hostel and chatted with a group of 5 Oregonian students from Linfield College and a guy from Seattle that had climbed Mt. Adams this summer (small small world!!!).
On 1/31, I decided to go for a walk around the newly restored dock areas out by the ferry terminal and on the Rio de la Plata. It was a beautiful area with fancy sailboats, broad promenades, lots of trees, and new shops. Half my way through my walk, the sky literally just opened up and it started pouring. Of course, this was the one time I hadn´t brought my raincoat so I tried taking shelter under a tree, but got dripped on too much so then I ran to a coffee shop and had to stay there for an hour til the rain stopped. The funny thing is that it was pouring, but 80 degrees out! After Sarah and Erica got back from their Spanish course, we decided to bus out to the neighborhood of La Boca, known for both its brightly painted buildings and its tango. The specific area we went to called Caminito, was incredibly touristy, but very beautiful. All the corrugated tin buildings were painted in bright colors with shutters, balconies, window frames and lamposts all different colors. We happened upon a couple outdoor tango shows that we could photograph for free. It is one of those places that you have to see in BA, but it is in a dangerous neighborhood, so I was glad to have some companions to see it with! In the evening, the three of us went to a percussion concert called La Bomba de Tiempo. It was awesome! The venue was about a half city block of open pavement closed from the street. There were so many people! The show opened with about 10 bongo drummers and some dancers in colorful costume dancing to the drumbeats in sort of an Africa folk dance. The main act was 15 people playing all sorts of drums and other percussion instruments. These 15 were extremely talented musicians and performers- the show was really really fun!
On 2/1 I woke up at 5am, before most people had even returned from partying, to catch a taxi to the airport to fly to Ushuaia! The flight wasn´t very full and was about 3.5 hours so I slept quite a bit. On our descent to Ushuaia, as we dropped below the clouds, I saw the deep blue Beagle channel, dotted with little sandy islands and surrounded by mountains and mountains and mountains! It was so beautiful! As we continued our descent, we banked really hard into the airport to the point that our wings were vertical. It got so bad with the turn and the turbulance that people actually starting screaming and crying, and I had to stop looking out the window and close my eyes. It was definitely the scariest experience I´ve ever had on a plane. I peeked out the window again as we were only a few feet off the runway and we came down with no problem. Everyone, including the flight attendants, started clapping and cheering when we landed. Scary! I took a taxi from the airport to my hostel. While flying in and while talking to the hostel reception, I figured out that there was pretty much no snow on the ground for the trek I wanted to do (with the forcasts here, I thought there was going to be too much snow) so I decided I would go ahead and trek! I spent the day packing and planning. I got lots of information from some Israeli guys and a French guy who had done the trek a few days earlier. In the evening, I hiked up to the Glaciar Martial with a group of Israelis. It felt so good to go for a hike! The trail wound up through the forest along a stream coming from the glacier. Once we got to the morraines, there were spectacular views back down valley to Ushuaia, the channel, and Chile! The glacier itself had 1 cravasse and looked like a steep snowfield, but it was a great hike. We walked all the way back to town (we had taken a taxi to the trailhead) through little alpine cottages and A-frames landscaped with lupine and yarrow. So cute! We got back to the hostal around 10pm and it was still light out.
Well that´s it for my last days in BA and my first impressions of Ushuaia!
